theakston

Baby Back Ribs: Ask the colonel: Brine overnight or just a dry rub? Do you have a dry rub recipe? ideas? should take 4-5 hours to smoke right? Thanks.

Thanks for the tip. The wholefoods in Arlington seems to have stopped doing whole fish (they had removed the ice-case)

Actually a lot of them do. Several of the Victory ales are bottle conditioned (Golden Monkey, V10 / V12, Grand Cru). As are many Dogfish head ales, Allagash, Ommegang's ales, Bear Republic ales etc. to name but a few. Even Sierra Nevada Pale has some bottle conditioning! I think they are becoming more widespread now that people are getting more used to the idea of living beer as opposed to pasteurized filtered crap.

That fish looks great. Where did you get the fish. Slavins?

I love grilled sardines. Try the Portuguese deli in Arlington. They have fish flown in from Portugal (every Thursday I think, for the weekend). Excellent source for salt cod too. It's at the corner of Washington and Pershing (diagonally opposite where Whitey's bar was).

Coming to Manchester: http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/sto...general20030627 Expect several local breweries (Holts, Robinsons, Hydes) to close soon. Only the multinational produced chemical swill will prevail.

Allagash is from Portland Maine. Is is widely available on the East Coast (Wholefoods etc). I't isn't raining so I'm going to have one in the garden NOW.

Blue moon is awful. Coors. Celis is currently made (in Belgium) by The van Steenberge brewery http://ratebeer.com/ShowBeer.asp?BeerID=9696 I don't believe it can be imported as Miller still own the rights to the name. IMHO Allagash make the best witbeer (in the USA) simple called Allagash white.

Not burning it. It doesn't stick so the clean up's just a quick swill out with a sponge. Rice is about all I use the non stick for and it's all coming off on the bottom. Looks like it's been scraped with a metal implement only it hasn't. I liked it other than that. Glass lid so you can see how it's bubbling along. pretty useful I thought. Maybe the dog's using it while I'm out..... I should add that I nearly always use Basmati so I swill it out first in the pan. rinsing it in about 7 changes of water. Perhaps that's where it gets dinged up?

I ain't lyin' it has, over a few months, removed the non-stick from the bottom. This is a calphalon. Not impressed. YMMV but no BS.

Coors: for them beer is a 4 letter word. beginning with S. How they have the nerve to pretend that they are doing anything other than attempting to lure the young away from the great traditional brews of the UK and into a heavily marketed chemical fizz is beyond me.

Another use would be Vanilla oil. Just steep the beans in grapeseed oil. Use the oil to drizzle on seafood.

Bistro Du Coin -- Polite service! not in my experience anyway. I'd go with the Bistro Francais in Georgetown (although I'd choose Marcels any day -- with a glass of Orval at the bar - 'tis a tad pricey though).

Le Creuset? Thanks for the tip I'll try this out. I always found: Non-stick - Rice basically removes the coating from the bottom like I scraped it with a dozen metal forks. Stainless - sticks unless I do it over-wet. Then the rice sucks. I had resorted to anodized aluminium, doesn't stick too bad but a bugger to clean. I'll definitely try the Creuset method next and hope I don't ruin another pot.

Belgian Browns: My favourite is the Flemish brown ale Goudenband from Liefmans: http://www.bottledbeer.co.uk/beer.asp?beerid=789 It's a classic. The Trappist Ales tend to be categorized differently despite the fact that many of them are, in fact brown. Of those I like Rochefort 10 the best. Another English beer that could be considered a Brown Ale ( although some prefer to lump it in with "Old" Ales) is Theakston's Old Peculier. As you may guess I'm rather fond of that one, especially on draft. A good American Brown is Wild Goose Hexnut Brown: http://ratebeer.com/ShowBeer.asp?BeerID=813

Those of you in DC must try the Imperial Pale Ale from Capitol City Brewery in Shirlington. It is awesome and IMHO knocks the spots off DFH's various x minute IPA. They tap this puppy every Thursday and serve it until it runs out. It will not be listed on the chalkboard. (stealth beer by word of mouth). It's 9.5% so go easy. Delicious though this is, it is a variant of the true IPA style, being stronger and darker than the true style. Other American IPAs tend to be more agressively dry-hopped than a "classic" IPA. This is probably due to the fact that most people prefer to drink them at a cooler temp than the British would serve them, so the aroma of the kettle hops are somewhat suppressed.

How about forwarding their superb advice - not to use their product in a barbecue - over to the virtual Weber site. Seeing as bullet users probably account for a good percentage of their sales. And CC the moron who sent you it. http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.shtml They already lost one customer. I bought the bullet last weekend and was about to buy a Polder. Not now.

Parboiled rice? You're not getting rice mixed up with orzo are you? Orzo is the pasta that looks a little like rice. Very common in Greek restaurants.

Victory have released a V12 this year (V10 was last year) this is 12%. It hasn't surfaced around here yet but it has got good reviews. I've had problems with both the V10 and the Golden Monkey in 75 Cl bottles. Many of them were infected during bottling. Beware anything bottled around September 12th 2002 ( or earlier that week). They apparently had a problem with the new bottling equipment which resulted in many bottles being infected. My first V10 tasted like Rodenbach -- not entirely awful but not as expected or intended. I also think they are rather over-priced compared to Ommegang or Belgian imports.

Sounds like you would be more interested in Eel Pie and Mash: http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/home_feat_wher...cockneygrub.asp This is the traditional london working class grub. Fish and Chips are best in the North of England at somewhere like Bryants in Headingley (Otley Rd. out of Leeds). There are some good ones in London but they weren't so much a part of the local food scene there, so the good ones tend to be a bit trendy.

There's a tendency towards stronger beers in the USA these days. I had an Imperial Pale Ale over the weekend and was suprised to see it was 9.5 ABV. English style, much heavier alcohol. There are also some strains of yeast being produced that can tolarate much higher alcohol levels before they give up and die. With these yeasts Sam Adams and Dogfish Head have produced beers of over 20% ABV. I think Dogfish has the record with a stout weighing in at 23% ABV and a pale ale at 21% ABV. I personally think it has gone too far and would like to see a return to producing decent ales that you can drink a few of without waking up in a dumpster. Nothing wrong with a few Belgian Strong ales now and then. Their style suits the stronger end of the spectrum and they use strange yeast combinations and age their beers to good effect. These new mega strong brews don't really add much other than alcohol. If I wanted that I'd probably go for a Sierra Nevada Bierschnaps http://www.essentialspirits.com/products.a...sp?proid=sierra

My condolences.

Well Baruch I'm sorry you had to get personal and insult me. I was only trying to help. And I think if you actually read what I wrote you would realize that our only difference was that the sirloin in english terms is not the same as in the USA. It is the loin minus the tenderloin. In the USA it is apparently the top rump. There are differences between English and American terms and I apologise for throwing a third set of terms into the mix. No reason to be a wanker though. mogsob thanks for putting us both right and proving it is possible to do so without taking cheap shots at other members.

I think I'm getting you even more confused as I'm an ex brit and that is where I did some butchery in a French restaurant ( A long time ago I may add). Tenderloin? It seems to be that in the USA this means the same as the fillet - in other words the strip that goes inside the sirloin and has the Chateau briande at the top tapering down through Filet mignon to the tips - onglet? I agree the loin is not a part of the ribs, but I don't think there is a difference between the loin outside of the fillet (tenderloin) and what I know as sirloin (other than the knighthood). So therefore I agree that Chateaubriande is all fillet (tenderloin) but I have seen porterhouse here that was not and did not have the t-bone nor a bit of fillet (tenderloin). From my definition there is absolutely no reason why sirloin costs more than a strip. Is this rump? I have seen stuff labeled as sirloin that is way too big to be a loin meat so I suspect the term, like many here, is open to a wider interpretation than would be allowed in Europe. Given all that I think I'll leave us both confused and hope that a US butcher can help us out. Anyone out there from Les Halles?

Actually that is exactly where I meant. I don't know 'bout you but I keep my loins to the south of my ribs. It is the continuation of the muscle that the rib cuts are made of but after the ribs diminish so that you only really have the spine. That's why I gave the TBone as an example. What you are looking at in a Tbone is a piece of Sirloin connected to a piece of Fillet it is a cut across the spine so that includes a bit of each. That's how it makes sense to be contre filet (against the fillet). Porterhouse as I've seen it served in the USA is usually just a f'ing thick piece of sirloin. However translate this into French and it is Chateau briande which is the fat end of the fillet. Go figure.